Alpha King’s Wolfless Mate by Scarlett Higgins

Chapter 106

**Nora POV

The royal library wasn’t at all what I had imagined. I had pictured towering shelves of books that you would need a ladder to reach. I had imagined gleaming, polished wooden tables and the scent of vanilla and old paper filling the air. I thought that there would be a fireplace and comfortable old armchairs. There was none of that.

This was more of an archive. There were rows of metal shelves stacked with document boxes. In the center of the room were a few long tables with leather rolling chairs around them.

The cold, fluorescent lighting did nothing to make the place seem less intimidating.

“This is the library?” Christianasked uncertainly.

“It would seem so,”Maisi e said.

“Not exactly what I thought itwould be.”

“Not at all,”I agreed.“Where are weeven supposed to start?”

“Blake said that it’s organized bypack name, so I guess we start there,”Maisi e noted.

“The three packs that shared theforest with Moonery are the most likely options,”I added.“Silcreek, Willow Wood, and Reed.”

Maisi e nodded.“Well, I say we each take one and start looking.”

“Looking for what exactly?”Christian asked.“How do we know what we’re looking for?”

“Obviously, look for any mentionof a missing child,” Maisi e clarified. “Other than that, I suppose we justlook for anything that stands out or seems strange.”

“There is one thing,”I offered.“When I was first found, I guess Iused to sing a song. It was the story

of a pr incess who was chased by a red wolf. She ran away, but she wasn’t afraid. I don’t know the words anymore or the name of the song, though.”

“A red wolf?”Christian asked.

I just nodded. I didn’t understand it either, and the less we dug into that particular aspect, the better.

I was still having the dreams of the crimson wolf. Nothing seemed to help with them. Every time I drifted off it was there, just watching me. It never tried to approach me or speak to me, it just observed with a glint in its eyes as if it were judging me. I shuddered at the memory.

“In that case, I think we should startby looking at the cultural information about the packs,”Maisi e said thoughtfully.“If we can find anything about that song, then we’ll know we found the right pack and that will narrow our search down significantly.”

“Okay, I’ll start on Silcreek,”Christian offered.

“I’ll cover Willow Woods,”Maisieresponded.

“I guess that leaves me with Reed,”Isaid with a grimace.

I really wasn’t interested in becoming more familiar with Helen’s pack. I’d had nothing but bad experiences with them. I hoped that I wasn’t from there, but it was certainly possible. It wouldn’t have surprised me to learn that a Reed pack member had abandoned their child, actually.

That pack had a nasty reputation and from all of my experiences, it was well earned.

We each went to the shelves that held information about the pack we were assigned. I wasn’t sure where to start, so I just grabbed the first few boxes marked“Cultural, Reed”and took them to one of the long, conference tables.

I opened the first one and pulled out an overstuffed file. This was going to take a lot longer than I had hoped. I sighed and opened the file. There was no point in delaying any further.

So,I started to read.

***

We had been going through box after box of records for hours and so far, none of us had found a thing that seemed useful. It was as boring as it was frustrating.

I was running into the same problem I had earlier in the day, when I’d been stuck in the quiet shop alone. My mind was wandering. I tried to force myself to focus on the paperwork in front of me, but I couldn’t.

The words had started to blur together and I found myself reading the same paragraph over and over without remembering any of it. I sat the papers down and rubbed my eyes.

I wondered what Blake was doing right now. He was probably still in meetings. Hopefully, he hadn’t gotten another cryptic letter from Margot yet. I hated the idea of him running off to meet with her again.

As much as I want to move past my negative feelings, I couldn’t help but feel suspicious of her.

I was well aware that my feelings were irrational. Margot was risking everything to help us. She was sincere when she explained her reasons. I believed every word she said about what her pack had been through and why she wanted to stop Graham from causing more loss and hardship for her people. So, why did the thought of her twist my stomach like this?

I leaned back in the chair and stretched my arms.

What was it about her that put me on edge?

I didn’t get the feeling that she had ulterior motives. I didn’t really

think that Kelly was clever enough to be manipulating her either. So, why?

Was this really all due to my own jealousy?

It was crazy to think that my emotions could have such a powerful impact on me physically. I felt nauseous when I thought about Margot being alone with Blake. If I let myself dwell on it, I would get angry. Angry enough that my sick feeling would turn to chills and my hands would shake with the desire to cause pain.

It was intense and I hated the way it made me feel.

I trusted Blake’s judgment and I knew he wouldn’t be unfaithful to me. But if that was true, then why did I still feel this way?

“Any luck?”

Christian’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I slumped in my chair and shook my head.

“No,I haven’t found anything.”

“Neither have I,”Maisi e said.

“We should call it a night,”I stated.“You’ve both had long days andneed to rest. This isn’t a high priority right now.”

“It’s a high enough priority,” Maisiereplied.“We’ll try again later.”

“Thank you.”I smiled. I did want tofind answers, and I didn’t think that I could find them alone.

“Let’s get out of here,” Maisi e said.She stood and carefully placed the documents she had been looking at back in their box.

Chrisitan followed her example and boxed up his files, then took the boxes back to the shelf.

I shut the file in front of me and stood slowly.

It couldn’t be easy for either of them to spend their night on something this dull after all of the work they had already done today.

The fact that they chose to go out of their way to help me was touching.

I wanted to thank them or reward them in some way, but I didn’t think that they would accept anything like that. They were my friends, they were doing this to help me. If I offered to pay them in some way, I would probably only insult them.

We put away all of the documents, then left the library together. We could tell by the faint light filtering in through the windows that it was already getting dark outside.

“I need to get home and sleep,”Christian said groggily.

“You do,”Maisi e agreed.“We havetraining tomorrow. I want you rested and ready.”

“Yes, ma’am,”he said. He wavedawkwardly, then started walking towards the door.

“You need to rest too,”I told Maisie.

She nodded.“As do you, Luna,”she said sternly.“Look, I know that you think the work you’re doing doesn’t compare to the manual labor and training that’s being done, but that doesn’t mean that you can keep pushing yourself. You haven’t been sleeping, have you?”

I crossed my arms defensively.“I get enough sleep,” I lied.

Maisi e shook her head.“I’m glad you accepted our help today,” she said.“You need to do that more often. It’s not a sign of weakness to rely on your friends.”

“I know, you’re right,”I repliedsoftly.

She looked unconvinced. “Goodnight, Luna,” she said. Shewalked away and I turned and headed toward the kitchen.

This emptiness inside of me was only growing worse. I worried that if I didn’t do something about it soon, it was going to start to impact my ability to function as the Luna. I

couldn’t let that happen. The pack needed me. Blake needed me. I couldn’t let them down.